


Glass

by Kagehami



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Cults, Deception, Deidara is a jerk, Everyone is a mage except Sakura, F/M, Horror, Human Sacrifice, Implied Uchiha Sasuke/Haruno Sakura, Implied Uzumaki Naruto/Haruno Sakura, Magic, More tags will be added later, Multi, Multiple Endings, Not a bash!Sasuke fic, Rituals, Romance, Self-Sacrifice, Tragedy, dark!fic, non-massacre, semi-free-form, semi-modern
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:05:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7481685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagehami/pseuds/Kagehami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura feels less like a person and more like a precious antique. The rest of the world seems to be stumbling over itself just to avoid breaking her.</p>
<p>Expect the rating to go up later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Envy

**Author's Note:**

> Some free-form thing I've been playing with off and on for a while. I do have a vague outline of how I see this ending, but things may change. Suggestions and feedback are welcome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura is not a mage.  
> Edited on 9/21/2016: Fixed a badly worded sentence that also conflicted with the story line.

**glass**

; a non-crystalline amorphous solid that is often transparent.

 

_I am an apostle of God, and I swear myself to the cause. I will purify this world._

_._

_...I create disasters, not miracles._

_.._

_What have I done?_

...

_...I’m sorry. I know it’s too late, but..._

_I’m so sorry._

_I think, if I had to pinpoint a time where it all began, it would be somewhere around here._

That afternoon was a bright one. The sun shone through the window with such intensity, it made Ino’s blonde hair glow white. With her back to Sakura, she foraged through the tall bookshelf inside her family’s herb shop. The pinkette stretched her arms across the counter between them, cheek smooshed against the linoleum as Ino unloaded another heavy stack of tomes right next to her head. When she sat up and looked around, she was hardly surprised to find herself almost completely surrounded; the counter, what few chairs were pulled up next to it and on the floor near her feet.

She was as fond as the next girl, but books, books, _books._

Ino had been at this for _hours_.

Sakura bit her lip and glared up at her friend. Her look of impatience, predictably, went entirely unnoticed.

“Come on, come on... Don’t tell me that guy never returned it...” her best friend grumbled, arms crossing over her chest and a crease marking her brow as she scrutinized the sea of literature around them. Eventually, she turned away and resumed her search...with not so much as a glance in Sakura's direction. In one unchecked moment of irritation, she threw her hands up and shrieked. The remainder of books jumped from the wall, as if reacting to her outburst. Sakura grabbed the biggest one within reach and shielded herself from a particularly...spiny novel that came sailing towards her face. 

"That's it!" Ino whirled around, red-faced up to her hairline. Where anyone else would have shrunk away in fright, Sakura...subsequently sighed in relief. 

It was finally over.

Honestly, she didn’t understand why Ino was going to such trouble in the first place.

“Ino.”

“What?!”

Sakura winced at the shrillness in her voice and kneaded her fingers into her temples.

“Why didn't you just do that in the first place?”

"Do what?" she demanded tersely, fingers gripping the edge of the counter.

At length, Sakura gestured toward the empty bookshelf. "Use magic."

Sakura remembered how Ino's whole body stilled with that question; the way the flush quickly left her face. Almost felt the cold wave of dread that came over her--unable to put a name to what it was at the time. In a typical Ino-esque manner, she lifted a perfectly manicured hand and pushed back her long, flaxen ponytail, the ends of which had been caught over her shoulder.

Then, she looked Sakura in the eyes and smiled.

“Nah, it’s totally fine!" she said, and then quickly plucked up the book with the spike-riddled spine--the one that had just about rearranged Sakura's face. "Oh, Forehead, here it is!”

The way the corners of her pretty, upturned lips twitched told Sakura just how apparent the shock of Ino's response was on her face.

Ino foregoing the use of magic to hunt down a single book?

No, that wasn't right; not at all.

And it was evident by the tight silence that settled over them how well they both knew it.

Ino Yamanaka, her best friend in the whole wide world wouldn't hesitate to weave a spell for such a menial task. She was clever, capable and when she cast her charming magic into the air it accomplished whatever she intended.

.

.

.

Neither of them said anything about Ino's blunder. At least, not until later that evening.

* * *

 

Ino worked at her parents’ herb shop from time to time when she wasn’t training to become a better mage and eventually, head of her coven.

Sakura was not a mage.

She was studying to become a doctor. A _normal_ career—which is what _normal_ , non-mages do with their non-magical lives. Her walks home from school involved passing Yamanaka Herbs, so she usually stopped in, did some of her class work while waiting for Ino to finish her shift, and then they would walk home together.

The sunset that afternoon was golden; it almost made Sakura's skin look tan, which was a joke considering just how pale she was. Still, it made her feel a little better walking beside Ino, who sported ‘beach babe’ all year-round. 

By then, the pinkette had worked up enough courage to ask the question weighing on her mind since the bookshelf incident.

“Ino, did your mom yell at you for using your magic?”

Ino looked ready to deflect the question, but she hesitated, biting her full bottom lip and avoiding Sakura's eyes.

"Ino," Sakura prodded, but the rest dried up in her mouth at the discomfort drawing on her blonde friend's face.

Realization crawled over her skin like a tickling, ugly insect. 

 _P_ _lease, don’t do this_ , Sakura thought, but already, she could feel her throat constricting in panic.

 _Small arms swinging freely around her, trying to accommodate for the noticeable berth of space given to her on the street. Large, green eyes flitting over passerby children and adults alike, trying to find a friendly face--someone that will look at her_ without _that strangely unsettling smile--the one that trembles at the corners and looks...afraid, somehow._

This was Ino--stubborn, beautiful and wonderful Ino.

_Hard reason, arguments well-versed and almost irrefutable._

_"You don't need magic, Sakura. Don't ask me to teach you--practical doctors are few and far in this town as it is._ Please. _Just continue with your studies."_

Once, when they were small, she and Ino had been lingering in front of a rather inviting antique shop. Sleek, glass figurines imbued with undulating streaks of color lined the sill. Their shapes ranged from people to creatures of questionable existence. Sakura was particularly charmed by a pelican. A simple, transparent thing with no outstanding features, except for the brilliant swirl of emerald that colored the lower half of its body. Its sitting position suggested a paper weight, and though she could think of no legitimate purpose for the little bird, she was already eyeing the sign in the window and calculating the deduction from her allowance. An associate there had come out and gone pale upon seeing Sakura--not an uncommon reaction to her presence anywhere Sakura went--and shooed them away without even considering their business. Ino had taken one look at the despairing look on Sakura's face, snapped those smart blue eyes up to meet the woman's and then the craziest, most bewildering thing in Sakura's young life occurred.

The girls walked shoulder to shoulder into the street while the shop owner stared after them with a dazed expression; the pelican figurine nestled heavily in Sakura's small hands.

Two days later, the antique shop owner contacted their parents and informed them of Ino's manipulations. The enchanted pelican paper weight had been returned to the shop-- _"Sakura, that was dangerous!"_   her mother had been _furious--_ and the girls were grounded, but Sakura realized she was not as sad as she ought to have been about its loss. 

Ino was the kindest friend in the world.

Sakura knew this had nothing to do with Mrs. Yamanaka's wariness toward her daughter's rapidly growing magical ability. Suspicion and fear alike curled around whatever reassurances she gave herself, and she felt a familiar kind of hopelessness trying to seize her. 

Not Ino, she pleaded.

The soft scrape of Ino's sandals was the loudest sound to Sakura on the mostly empty streets.

“Sakura, I... It’s not like that,” she hedged at length, her brow furrowed at the sidewalk. “It’s just that I know you don’t have any--well. Magic isn’t everything, you know? Maybe..."

A pause, and Ino pressed her lips together. She sucked in a breath and seemed to choose her words cautiously. "I should be more considerate.”

Sakura looked at her friend in askance; studied her carefully. 

Where was this coming from? 'I should be more considerate.' Sakura wanted to laugh or cry at the absurdity--or both. It simply wasn’t an Ino thing to say, so maybe this _was_  about her mom, but then...

Sakura couldn't lie to herself anymore.

“I’m not bothered by it, Ino,” she settled on replying, but even that sort of wasn’t the truth.

She was nineteen and the only one in her circle of friends who couldn't use magic--not by her own choice. But because she'd never been allowed.

Being in a family of mages that prohibited you from learning magic was like being auto-banned from Christmas—when Christmas was every hour of every day and your folks are having telekinetic food fights during holy dinner.

Unbridled chaos, but Sakura envied the experience.

She yearned for it.

 _“Why?"_   Sakura had once asked her father.

_“Am I not responsible?"_

_"Please, give me a chance and teach me!”_

_“It has nothing to do your level of responsibility. Magic is dangerous, Sakura. It can be a burden. Like walking up crumbling staircase."_ She was twelve and determined to reach a compromise. She was young and foolish enough to think she could. Her father's gentle and apologetic tone left her feeling guilty just for having thoughts about trying to negotiate. " _The higher you climb--the more magic you learn--the more_   _you start to feel the wear. Once you learn, you cannot unlearn. Once you're up, you cannot come down."_

_“Forgive us, Sakura. We only want to protect you.”_

Sakura grew older. The arguments changed marginally--but the outcomes remained the same. 

And she could never find the answer. Not the elaborate excuses they gave her, but the truth hidden in the darkness of this protection.

Sakura was no mage of manipulation--of others, and not her own fate.

By the time she would learn why she was denied what she desired the most, it would feel like the world’s cruelest joke.

The tension had lapsed somehow while Sakura became lost in her thoughts. Sakura put aside Ino's odd behavior for later contemplation, and they settled into a familiar kind of chatter. Ino talked about boys and Sakura listened, if not distractedly. She talked about her studies and Ino listened. Indeed, she had fallen in love with the idea of helping other people and improving their lives. She really did not need to be a mage to do that.

“Naruto told me to tell you he’ll be coming by your place after his training session,” Ino said off-offhandedly of the pinkette's boyfriend of six months, but Sakura could hear the smirk in her tone. It made her ears burn. She and Ino looked at each other and Sakura cringed at the shameless way the blonde made lewd gestures with her hips as they walked down the street.

Sakura thanked God no one was around to see them.

...And they laughed.

* * *

 

Sakura said good bye to Ino at her house and then started home. The door was locked when she let herself in, which usually meant no one was inside. Mages never seemed to bother locking their doors when they were home, and Sakura wondered whether it was arrogance or a trait of selective forgetfulness that only those of the magically inclined seemed to inherit. Her hunch was proven right when no one greeted her in the hallway. Not even a ghost.

She wasn't really expecting any ghosts, though. Her father had exorcised the house last winter, and there hadn't been a whisper of that eerie, yet beautiful spirit that used to stand in front of her window at night when it snowed.

It was when Sakura got upstairs that she noticed something truly unusual—her bedroom door was shut.

Sakura's bedroom door was _never_ shut.

Her parents didn't even like it to be shut when she was home and inside it. Cautious, as to not make the upstairs floor creak, the pinkette approached the door and placed a hand on the knob.

Sakura sucked in a breath... She was about to scare the living daylights out of whoever thought they could enter her room without her permission...

...and she pushed opened the door.

_“Sakura...!”_

A voice yelled out, half an alarmed cry, half...some kind of strangled moan.

The very first thing Sakura's eyes landed on was a naked, toned butt.

A _familiar_ naked, toned butt.

...Then, the look of slack-jawed awe on Naruto’s face.

 _Then_ , the girl pinned beneath him on her bed.

Sakura's cheeks burned so much they hurt, and then her entire face felt wet. She was semi-conscious of the fact that she was running in the opposite direction, away from a voice that was pleading to her.

"Sakura, wait! Please, come back!"

She rushed down the stairs, eager to get away from the scene. Her chest felt tight. Her mind had never felt as blank as it did in that moment. _Shock_ , just a single word bounced into her conscious as she bolted for the door, and then a few more as her thought process finally rebooted itself.

_I’m in shock._

Sakura's foot tripped on the seventh stair. She went flying. The carpeted steps met her rib cage and then she was sliding. Someone was screaming in the background, she thought. Naruto’s voice was so loud, she imagined he must have been right there next to her ear.

But she didn’t see anything; her eyes were shut tight. 

They stayed that way until the ambulance arrived and carted her off to the hospital.

* * *

 

Naruto wasn’t there at Sakura's bedside when she opened her eyes. Neither were Ino or her parents. She thought that was a good thing; she hadn’t had enough time to dwell on what a fool she'd been yet.

Hinata Hyuuga.

The girl in her room. Sakura recognized her the moment she saw her shiny black hair and pale, unusual eyes. She was the heiress to her prestigious coven, and a frequent model for _The Witch_ magazine. A talented, beautiful girl without a mean bone in her body.

Sakura couldn’t wrap her head around it. 

The door to Sakura's room opened and she felt her body tense. What if it was Naruto? She wasn’t ready to talk about what happened. Ino’s clan was renowned for its mind-reading capabilities, so she’d know all she wanted to the moment she stepped into the room.

Sakura couldn’t explain to her mom and dad what Naruto was doing in her room. That was still a mystery, even to her.

 _Well, not_ so _much a mystery_ , a smart, inner voice reasoned. Sakura closed her eyes and silently counted to five. It was ignorant of her, but she was doing all she could not to fit all the pieces together and realize that conclusion. She knew it would break her apart.

When a man in a lab coat walked in with a clipboard, her heart stopped pounding...just a little. She was in the hospital frequently for her desk job and was well-acquainted with the staff--both for which she had her mother to thank--but she didn't recognize this person.

He was so...green?

Sakura couldn’t bring herself to think much of it at the time. This is the mage world, after all. Living in it, you are bound to meet all kinds of unusual people.

The doctor’s strange golden eyes studied the pinkette for a long while, slightly narrowed in what she presumed to be clinical observation above the sanitary mask he wore. Then, he looked down at the chart in his blue-gloved hands. His voice was muffled, but friendly. Sakura understood him clearly enough when he spoke.

“Looks like you took quite a spill, Miss Sakura! How are you feeling today?”

**“Just a bump, unfortunately. I’m afraid she’ll live.”**

The yawn Sakura was in the middle of was cut short by someone’s catty assessment. Or at least she thought it wasn’t the doctor. Her eyes darted around the room in search of a third person. Maybe even a disgruntled ghost or a familiar.

But there was only the two of them.

Now, _that_ was weird.

When Sakura shifted her attention back to the doctor, she couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes were crinkled enigmatically, giving the impression that he was smiling at her beneath his mask.

A shiver zipped down her spine, which caused every sore spot on her body to yelp in protest—especially her chest. “I think my ribs are bruised,” she whispered, remembering that she’d been asked a question about her condition. “And the side of my throat,” she added, unable to speak any louder. There were bandages starting at her elbow that wound all the way down to her wrist, which she hadn’t noticed before.

“Did something happen to my arm?”

“Yes.” The doctor nodded his green-spiked head. “I’m afraid you broke your arm during your fall. We did the best we can for now, but it’ll take a few weeks to heal.”

**“Too bad.”**

“I’m sorry,” Sakura spoke over the tail end of the last comment—probably a little too loudly due to the fact that she was getting irritated, “but, do you have a familiar or something? That other voice just now...” Maybe she was still fuzzy with whatever sedatives they’d pumped her with to ebb the pain, but she was almost ninety percent sure she'd heard a second voice.

It was the doctor’s turn to give Sakura a strange look.

Alright... So, maybe she really was imagining this voice?

Then, something he’d said made her stomach tighten with worry.

“A few weeks?” the pinkette groaned into her hands. She couldn’t wait a few weeks. She had exams coming up soon. She had work to do here at the hospital. How was she going to get anything done if she couldn’t even pick up a pencil? “Please, isn’t there a way to speed up the process?” Sakura pleaded to the doctor, hopeful for a swift solution. “...What about magic?”

The doctor gave Sakura a sympathetic sort of look that did nothing to soothe her anxious feelings. She sat back against the pillows stacked behind her, trying not to be impolite by turning her eyes away from his unsettling, golden ones.

“Would Lady Tsunade use her magic to fix something like this?”

Sakura shifted uncomfortably at the mention of her mother. She wasn’t surprised to hear him call her so formally--she ruled the town, after all--but having to acknowledge that he was right kind of annoyed her.

Yes, even her own mother wouldn’t use her healing magic on something like this...

The cruel woman.

When Sakura was eleven, she broke two fingers on her left hand while playing with some of the boys who were just starting to learn water magic. They were making more water for the ice rink so that they could play ice hockey in the winter when she slipped backward and landed awkwardly on her hand.

 _“That was dangerous, Sakura!”_  her mother had scolded, rushing outside the house, her blonde hair whipping in the chilly wind. Her brown eyes were large with concern as she lifted Sakura up. The boys scattered with her initial cry of pain as her mother held her.

 _“Mommy, it hurts! Please!”_  Sakura had begged as Tsunade examined her hand. She only stared, but Sakura remembered the sympathetic look in her eyes.

Then, Tsunade shook her head.

 _“I’m sorry,”_ she told her daughter, the sorrow Sakura saw moments ago nowhere to be seen. Her voice was steeled.

“It will have to heal on its own.”

Sakura ground her teeth together and threw her head back in exasperation. She regretted it immediately when a sharp pain lanced through the side of her skull. The blinding white of the ceiling lights stretched across her vision.

“Ah...” she moaned, trying to blink the stars out of her eyes.

The doctor with the strange eyes and spiky green hair sort of walk-floated over and placed a rubber-gloved hand on Sakura's head. “I understand how you feel,” he told her quietly, and when she looked at his face—the part she could see, anyway—she got the impression that he really did.

“Magic isn’t in the cards for you, Sakura... **Or is it?** ”

“Hey...” Sakura frowned, watching him withdraw as he finished checking her vitals. This time, she completely disregarded any thought of a second voice. She wanted to ask him just what the hell he was playing at, but...she was just a little more curious about his mysterious statement.

No one had ever given Sakura the choice of whether she wanted to dismiss magic from her life. When she was barely a teenager, seriously beginning to contemplate her future, she would often wonder if it was really something she had no control over.

Could she really never become a mage? Would her mom and dad never change their minds?

A long-buried, nearly forgotten dream.

If she was a mage, she could levitate. She would never be clumsy or shy. Books would fly off the shelf for her.

She could turn boys into toads...

But, Sakura wasn’t a mage. She was a medical student, thousands of dollars in debt.

Her life was so mundane; so bland.

...And it really never was going to change.

The doctor clicked his pen and announced the end of his examination. He told Sakura her mom was waiting to see her, even though Tsunade owned the hospital. Even though this was practically her town.

That made her nervous, because it meant her mother was so upset with her that she had delayed her visit deliberately. 

After the doctor left, Sakura was alone in the room. She stared at the closed white door, praying it would never open again.

Tsunade was probably so furious with Sakura, she didn't know what to say.

.

.

.

And she thought, _That makes two of us._


	2. Grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life goes on. Sakura tries to follow its lead.
> 
> I don't really know if pretend/practice surgery is a thing, but it is in this story.

 

When her mother finally stepped into her hospital room, Sakura could not defy the initial lull of her presence. Like a gentle gravity, it pressed down on her. It grounded her and made her wary at the same time.

She was like the woods in Konoha; like raw earth and the honeysuckles that grew against the scaling walls of their cozy little town.

Sakura watched the door click shut behind her, and then Tsunade settled herself against the wall near the frame. Her tawny eyes were tense at the corners and there was a bleariness about them that spoke of previous late nights in a secluded office, slouched over a large desk. Sakura knew that such nights were frequent. They were usually seen to with a bottle of alcohol.

She rarely saw her mother, but she knew that her job was important. The heavy hand, the distance she placed between them.

It was _necessary_ , she learned. Sakura detested it, cried in her confusion many nights in her youth...She would never understand, but had she learned.

Her mother belonged to Konoha.

Sakura's desire to crumble into sand on the bed and be swept away in the wind returned with more intensity than before. This was not a heartfelt visit between mother and daughter. Tsunade was in a foul mood, and Sakura deeply regretted she found the incident so severe that she'd troubled herself in coming by to see her.

“What was Naruto doing in our house?”

“I...don’t know,” Sakura responded carefully. A question she couldn't answer. Not a great start to their conversation.

A crease appeared between Tsunade's brows, a tell that told her it was just so.

“Ino said he was coming to visit later,” Sakura tried again. "I had no idea he was already there.”

Tsunade inhaled slowly through her nose; let her crossed arms fall at her sides and relaxed her jaw. Her feminine frame seemed to lose some of its tensity. Sakura thought watching all of this was like watching someone melt.

“Your father went to speak to Naruto,” her mother told her. Sakura felt the stab of panic.

She and Naruto hadn’t even talked about what happened yet. 

Tsunade finally looked at her. Her lips curved briefly, and just a tiny bit. Her eyes had softened.

But then her voice was firm.

“You’ll have to stay here until you're cleared to leave. I’ve already informed your professors.” She rose. “I have a meeting to attend.”

It shouldn't have come as such a surprise to her that this was where it ended. The ghost of a smile on her mother's lips had given her hope. 

Sakura's heart raced as Tsunade neared the door.

Today had been a terrible mess. She was exhausted, upset and confused. On top of all that, she was indefinitely confined to a freezing hospital room.

And Ino...She wanted to talk to Ino so badly, or to someone... 

Sakura didn't care if her actions were selfish--if she was delaying a meeting with the Mage Council.

She needed her mother. 

“Wait,” Sakura pleaded.

Tsunade paused in the doorway, red-painted nails clicking impatience on the frame.  

Sakura felt awkward and foolish.

This was foolish.

"I'm...sorry," she said instead. "I hope your meeting with the council goes well."

Tsunade's face was calm and smooth. No tells that Sakura could take directive from...Except, perhaps something about the way her hard eyes seemed to twinkle in the early moonlight from the open hospital window. The heavy atmosphere in the room seemed to shift, and Sakura studied her mother's profile. Strong form, soft curves and lavender-blonde hair.

“...I’ll bring you a change of clothes. Get some rest,” Tsunade told her daughter, and swept out of the room.

Sakura closed her eyes as the door shut the silence in.

**_7 Weeks Later_ **

Sakura was released from the hospital two days after admittance. Ino had contacted her almost immediately, apologizing for being unable to visit her. A long conversation followed that went almost exactly as Sakura had anticipated. Naruto was an asshole, Sakura _should_ have clocked him, and gods, Ino wished she would have been there to see her do it. They didn't have the luxury of catching Sakura up on any gossip she might have missed during her 'confinement'. Ino was preoccupied with her mage training, and would be attending an herb workshop out of town with her father the following week. The pinkette wished her friend luck and tried not sound as disappointed as she felt when she realized she wouldn't be seeing Ino for a while.

Sakura spent the next few weeks recovering. When she was deemed well, she seized the opportunity and stole into the town for less restrictive comfort. The sun and the wind. Children walking home from school. Little cafes now serving lunch propping open their doors to let wonderful aromas out and lure hungry customers in.

But underneath the soothing normality of everything, unease stirred in the streets of Konoha. Sakura became hyper-aware of the distance placed between herself and others.

By her pre-teens, Sakura had sorted out that it wasn't really her they were afraid of. It was her mother. Tsunade had made it clear to the entire town that _no one_ \--no matter who she approached--was allowed to teach her daughter magic. When people saw her on the street, they seemed to take it a step further by simply avoiding poor Sakura altogether.

She didn't blame them. Her mother was often a severe woman, a powerful mage and their High Sorceress--their leader. But the roseate-haired girl was almost certain there was a prominent _ignore Sakura_  vibe in the air as she decidedly walked to the hospital that day.

Sakura tried to reason with herself. It was possible she felt more sensitive to her surroundings because hadn’t been out much lately.

 _Or maybe_ , an inner voice countered. Sakura couldn't stamp the thought out fast enough.

Maybe it was because everyone in town _clearly_ understood that she no longer had a boyfriend.

Late one day, nearing dark, she'd come out onto the porch and found Naruto waiting for her in the empty driveway of her parents' home. When he saw her, he looked as though he felt out of place and very much wanted to leave.

Like she’d never found him there waiting countless times since they were barely teenagers love-hating each other.

Her hating more than loving...At least, back then.

Like they hadn't shared their first kiss there.

His mouth twitched like he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to smile at her. Sakura didn’t know what to do, either. She thought most of her anger had passed. She couldn’t even punch him if she wanted to.

“H-hey, Sakura…” Naruto stammered. His blue eyes looked so dark in the late sunset. Sakura wanted to say something, but she couldn’t think of anything worth opening her mouth. Instead, she just stared at him; waiting for him to explain the reason for his presence.

“I…” Naruto sighed. Ran a hand over his short, blond hair, which he’d buzz cut just a week before. She never really got around to telling him how much she liked it.

Now, telling him at all felt kind of pointless. Maybe even a little inappropriate.

“Sakura, that day… I swear, I came alone. Hinabi crawled in through the window after me. I had so much to say to you, and then it turned out that way…”

“You let a girl into my house.” Sakura's rigid response made Naruto look downright shameful.

 _Good_ , she thought bitterly.

“Wait, Hinabi? That wasn’t Hyuuga Hinata?”

Naruto’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What? No! Hinata is…” the wind mage gestured with his hands in front of his chest, “bustier.”

Sakura's whole arm was throbbing with the urge to smack him with it. She wondered if the cast would make the blow to his face especially painful.

While she was deciding on whether she wanted to risk re-breaking her arm for a little satisfaction, the other half of Naruto’s explanation re-occurred to her.

“You said you had a lot to say to me,” she prompted him. “What are you talking about?”

Naruto fidgeted. Sakura narrowed her eyes.

“Tell me,” she said impatiently. If they were going to discuss things, she wasn’t going to be without all the details. She thought she deserved that much.

Naruto avoided the pinkette's glare. He stared at the lawn and scratched at the whiskered marks on his left cheek—a token of the pact he’d made with his powerful familiar, Kurama.

“I was going to break up with you.”

Sakura blinked; stood up a little straighter.

…Had she heard him right?

_“Sakura, you’re the only girl for me. I’ve always loved you."_

He said he would make her happy and she completely believed him. Naruto had become one of her best friends. This was a great step forward in their relationship. She was hesitant at first, but he made her see that she had no reason to feel unsure.

How did this happen?

“...Ah.”

Sakura's entire face hurt with the effort she was making not to cry.

How could she have been such an idiot?

“Yeah…” Naruto said with as much articulation. They stood there in the driveway of her parents’ house, looking like a couple of disenchanted teenagers… Or, were they really adults now?

_Welcome to the world, where love isn’t forever._

"Why?” Sakura heard herself say, and she regretted it immediately. She didn’t want to know why. Not at this point. Knowing at this point wasn’t going to change anything.

Naruto mumbled something in response.

“What?” she demanded. The sound of her voice came a little too sharply in the sullen atmosphere.

Naruto cleared his throat and then spoke, but slowly, as if he had to force himself. He wouldn’t look at her.

She was devastated.

“You can’t use magic, so I thought it might complicate our lives if we…get any closer.”

Sakura felt like her insides had been flash frozen. She wished she could melt; run off into the road and disappear.

“I was wrong, Sakura. I want to be with a mage...

"I’m sorry.”

Naruto recoiled at the sight of Sakura's tear-streamed face. She knew how red her face was. He knew how bad it looked when she cried, but he never used to let her cry on her own. He would hold her. He wouldn’t let a single one of her tears fall.

Five months before, they were the two happiest people in the world.

For the rest of the night, Sakura wondered why he looked even more upset than she did.

* * *

 

Naruto had made up some excuse that he had to leave, and then he took off before she could think of something to say to him. Coincidentally, her parents had come home fifteen minutes later. She wasn't up to speaking to either of them.

That conversation in her driveway with Naruto felt so far away, yet she still found herself thinking about it seven weeks later. She had been falling in love with him, she was sure of it; still is.

After the guilt and the shame, Sakura rediscovered her anger. She went back to berating him.

And after berating him, all she was left with were questions that were unlikely to receive answers.

She wondered, why the sudden change?

Maybe, she told herself, feeling quite cliche one evening, it simply wasn't meant to be. Naruto belonged to a world that she was forbidden from being a part of. She suspected that was why her parents hadn't inquired too much about their break-up.

No, Sakura's world was less than magical.

It was far from graceful, or like a love story.

It was wrist deep in some guy’s stomach, fingers wriggling around in his intestines.

“Sakura—ah, Miss Sakura? Dr. S—“

“What _is_ it Kabuto? I told you not to talk to me in the middle of pretend surgery unless it's absolutely necessary!” Sakura yanked her hand out of the model’s abdomen and peeled off her gloves. Her nurse-in-training frowned at her from behind his round spectacles, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the monotone beep of the vitals machine, indicating that their ‘patient’ was dead.

“Fuck,” she grumbled and threw her gloves in the trash, disregarding the hazardous waste bin. Her grey-haired nurse scuttled out of the room behind her, trying to flag her down and warn her about her bloody scrubs before she terrified someone.

Sakura ripped her mask off and moved into an empty room across the hall. “I’m going home for the day,” she informed him.

Yakushi Kabuto stood in the door way, glasses askew and looking utterly confused. “Home?” he repeated, as if he didn’t know the word. She had theories he actually lived in this place with their mentor, Dr. Orochimaru. The two of them always seemed to be in the building together when she didn’t need Kabuto’s help with practice procedures.

“Yeah,” the pinkette answered while washing her hands at the sink, and then she turned her head to stare at him. Just in case he didn’t understand the first time, Sakura clarified: “I’m going to change in here.”

After an awkward stretch of silence over the running tap, Kabuto finally seemed to get the picture.

“Oh! I’ll just…go clean up, then. Make sure you let Ms. Shizune know you’re leaving.”

“Of course,” Sakura agreed. When she heard the door shut, she reached for the lock and turned it.

Alone at last.

Her parents would be home for dinner this evening, which she was quite looking forward to.

It was rare.

But, it wasn't on purpose. Tsunade was an awful cook and her duties as High Sorceress of Konoha made her down time scarce. Sakura's father did a lot of research for his career as a writer, which also took him away from home.

Jiraiya had begun focusing on his hobby when Sakura turned five, and eventually made it into his civilian career not long after his retirement from the world of magic. He used to call himself a ‘sage’, rather than a mage. Sakura never really understood what the difference was—just that, when she was small, her mother used to tell her it meant he was very powerful. She would smile when she said that, like she knew a secret, and for some reason, that smile would make Sakura feel so happy...

Sakura was really looking forward to sitting down with both of her parents. As she prepared herself for the evening, she hummed softly to herself.

The pinkette traded her filthy scrubs for a nice white blouse and mint-colored midi skirt. She threw her booties in the trash and strapped on a pair of heeled, nude sandals. She made faces in the mirror at herself in the bathroom; played with her short pink hair. When Sakura decided she looked decent enough for dinner with her family, she grabbed her things and left the hospital.


	3. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She thinks she hates him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the late update. I just got a new job and I haven't really had a day off or much time to myself. I'm off tomorrow, so I'll try to edit the next chapter and have it posted sometime in the afternoon.

The people she passed on the street that evening wouldn't even share the sidewalk with her—but Sakura was alright with that. She decided to stop by a pastry shop on the way home. 

Her father had informed her earlier that morning that her mother had  _insisted_ on helping with dinner. Jiraiya usually cooked for them on these occasions, and they were equally surprised by Tsunade's...inflexibility on the matter, (Sakura had no doubt this was just a scheme to ensure alcohol would be included with the meal) but both he and Sakura knew that refusing her mother on anything was...bad.

Just bad.

So naturally, Tsunade would be included in helping with dinner preparations...

In case something went horribly wrong—which it certainly would—it _always_ did--at least there would be dessert.

The little bell on the entrance tinkled as Sakura entered the Uchiha pastry shop. Uchiha Mikoto, the kind owner, was well-known in town for the variety of desserts she could whip up. The pinkette was looking forward to seeing her smiling face when she walked in.

Instead, she was greeted with...

"Ah. It's _you_."

Glaring at her over a large, open box sitting on the counter was Mikoto's youngest son, Uchiha Sasuke.

.

.

.

"Sasuke," Sakura smiled tightly. The initial bounce in her step was less than it was as she made for the baked goods display.

Uchiha Sasuke; gifted, moody, and tragically good looking.

Tragic, because, _surely_ someone else was more deserving. Both she and Ino had realized early on--blessedly, _long_ before fangirlitis, the deadly disease slaying girls right and left in Konoha, took hold--that Sasuke's 'charm' did not extend much farther than his magical talents and striking appearance.

His customer service skills could stand for some polishing as well, now that she thought about it.

Sasuke and Sakura dated for a scant two months...until they decided they were better at bickering with each other.

_Firm hands gripping, palms warm on her ass. Soft lips exchanging hard, impassioned kisses and his mouth and his breath were feverishly hot—_ _she could_ taste _his fire magic._

Short-lived passion. They had burned through whatever it was they'd felt for each other very quickly three summers ago.

Their history together was hardly more than a distant memory to her, now.

.

.

.

There were exactly two strawberry shortcakes left. Sakura took in the sight of the triple layers with delight; their rich, fluffy cream and red fruit filling...

_Just perfect_ , the rosette thought with satisfaction.

She only needed one.

As Sakura went to grab the cake, her hands were suddenly smacked away. 

Her gasp of shock quickly ran into a frustrated hiss when she looked up and saw who the offender was.

Sasuke purposely slid the pastry away from her on the little table between them, staring at her with suspicious eyes as if she'd been trying to do something untoward to it.

To the _cake_.

_Unreal_ , Sakura thought as she tossed up her hands, both astounded and infuriated.

Before she could say a word, the bell on the door chimed again and another customer wandered in. Sasuke didn't bother to greet them--not that she was really expecting him to.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Sakura demanded to know, keeping her voice down. Her decent mood had been officially spoiled--no, _obliterated_.

Whenever she would come in--which was rarely, anymore--he would always dessert-block her on his shifts. To think she might get through one transaction without his meddling...

_"Don't you weigh enough, already?"_

_"That's none of your business!"_

"You're an asshole," Sakura told him, as if it were fact.

"This cake is for my brother," the fire mage explained himself, ignoring her remark. As if that validated his rude behavior, he took the cake away and brought it back behind the counter. Despite how agitated she was by his attitude, she could feel herself starting to deflate.

Sakura knew how much Itachi liked his sweets. Sasuke openly despised them, but when they would play together as kids, his elder brother would always make sure they took breaks. Sakura could recall a hot summer day on Mikoto's outdoor patio, glasses of lemonade clinking with ice, and a stack of fresh cookies on a plate. Itachi's knowing smile as he asked if she needed more ice in her glass, or if she wanted more to drink.

The memory seemed to elevate Sakura back to a slightly better mood. A smile curved her lips as she picked up the remaining cake and carried it to the register. "How is Itachi?" she asked Sasuke, wondering where Konoha's best detective might be right now. "I haven't seen him in a while."

Sasuke "hn"ed as she slid the cake toward him, but made no comment about her purchase as he scanned and placed it in a brown paper bag. "Fine, I guess," he told her, rolling down the opening and folding it in place with practiced ease. Sakura was surprised when he didn't immediately hand it back to her and send her on her way after paying. 

Instead, he continued. The words came across like an afterthought. "...There's been some strange activity going on in Ame. He's been sent to investigate."

The pinkette's brows rose. "In Ame? That's quite away..."

Sasuke said nothing. There was a crease to his brow, a downward tilt to his mouth, and his jet eyes were slightly narrow. He was frustrated, Sakura recognized. It was a look he wore when he was agonizing over a mistake.

It dawned on her that perhaps this was something he wasn't supposed to be sharing with her.

Something he shouldn't be sharing with a _civilian_. 

A thick, uncomfortable silence settled around them. Sasuke was normally brusque with her. Where people politely avoided her whenever possible, he let her know when her presence was and wasn't desired. After their break-up, he had very plainly told her he had no interest in interacting with her.

Not that the feeling wasn't mutual by that point...

.

.

.

It... _was_. Mutual.

The end of their relationship had felt much like the end of a terrible war. They were not the same people they had been when they were younger. They disagreed on too much. Their arguments were often loud, his standoffish attitude angered her something fierce, and...

But, what _did_ they argue about?

Sakura's brows drew together in startling confusion as she watched Sasuke seal the fold on her purchase with a sticker. When she looked into his face, she saw that he was studying her closely--almost critically.

For an intense moment, Sakura felt an unrealistic sense that he might grab her.

Something shifted in those dark eyes, and it sent a wicked, familiar heat flaring through her.

.

.

.

Why did they argue?

Sakura felt as though someone had taken certain contents of her brain and tossed them right out of her head. Three summers hadn't been _that_ long ago. The memories she'd made with Sasuke were not the best, but they could hardly be forgotten...

Who had ended their relationship? When did it begin?

Why had they started dating?

"Sakura."

_When?_  

"Sakura."

"H-huh?" Sakura started at the sound of Sasuke's voice. She blindly pulled the cake off the counter and into her arms, still half lost inside her own mind. Blinking a couple times, she gave the Uchiha a wary side-glance and saw that he was still looking at her, although, somewhat blankly now. Sasuke held out her receipt and the pinkette accepted it gingerly.

There was a question on her lips. Something was breaking the surface--warm and cold, happy and sad, but it made no sense to her. None of it did. 

"Sasuke, when we..." Sakura's mouth opened, but she had no idea what she intended to ask. The fire mage's expectant stare conveyed a rare patience, and they almost...had a conversation.

Sakura's mouth snapped shut. Her face flushed and she felt awkward; embarrassed. 

 "Ah...never mind. Thank you," she said quietly, and then quickly walked out of the shop. 

The bell plinked as the door opened and slowly closed, announcing Sakura's exit--and her escape.

.

.

.

Sasuke's gaze followed her beyond the glass windows and into the evening glare. 

* * *

 

**おまけ** Omake

Extra

 

_"We could turn back."_

_He hears the apprehension. The warm summer wind waves the trees and dries the streaking tears on her cheeks, but he can still smell salt in the air. Her hand is small and her fingers are slender. Her grip is too loose, and he's afraid that she'll slip away from him while his back is turned._

_While they're escaping._

_Her mint-colored sneakers shuffle across the thick grass as she lags behind, and then he realizes he's actually been pulling her along all this time. He stops, turns around and looks at her face. Her nose and face are slightly red and her green eyes are puffy and wet. Naruto once compared her crying face to a tomato and she had gotten immensely angry with him. The wind mage suffered a fractured cheek bone for a good couple of weeks, until Kurama finally took pity--or grew tired of his whining--and eventually granted him access to his healing magic._

_She is not retaliating and she could certainly punch him._

_But, for the nth time since they put several miles between themselves and Konoha, a small voice at the back of his mind whispers doubt of whether this scenario is only the result of his own desperation._

_It's guilt._

_He's taking her away from safety, and he isn't._

_He's taking her away from those who care, and it's the best thing he can do for her._

_._

_._

_._

_She feels guilty, too._

_She shouldn't--but, he hasn't told her_ anything _yet._

_There is shame in the faltering of her steps. Her viridian eyes, darkened by the shade of the forest secluding them, keep darting around with wild paranoia. She's worried, but she isn't afraid of getting caught._

_She's afraid of what they'll do if they catch_ him _._

_He promised to teach her all he knew about magic; to show her the things about_ their _world that she had been barred from. It had been a well-contemplated proposal. The only thing he hadn't anticipated was her easy agreement._

_"I would like that," she had agreed, a sheepish smile on her mouth and color in her cheeks._

_She'd flung her arms above her head against the glittering cement, laughter bubbling. "Let's just leave!"_

_It sounded like a careless joke. But it wasn't._

_He remembers laying on the wide driveway of her parents house, her curled against his side. Remembers the excited grin she buried into his shoulder, unable to keep her happiness hidden away._

_The emotion had radiated from her--made his breath catch and something swell in his chest._

_._

_._

_._

_He swipes the backs of his fingers beneath her eyes, catching her remaining tears. She looks up at him and a smile curls her slightly trembling lips._

_"It's too late to turn back."_

_._

_._

_He would carry her through._

_And when they were on the other side, maybe they could laugh together._


	4. Deception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A storm approaches.

Sasuke was almost finished sweeping the store when he looked up and spotted the blur of orange and black racing toward the building. 

Uzumaki Naruto burst in like a twister.

The newspaper rack by the automatic door fell to the floor and spilled out all the fliers. They crushed under Naruto's feet as he plowed through and kicked them aside.

.

.

.

No.

_No._

No time for this.

Sasuke, after his conversation with Sakura just minutes ago, was feeling about as agitated as a poked bear. 

He really didn't want to deal with this.

Sasuke suspected the wind mage had seen Sakura leave the bakery on his way here.

"Get your hands off the glass," he ordered, raising his voice in the otherwise empty shop and tossing the broom into the supply closet. "Get the fuck out."

Naruto's footsteps quickened toward his turned back. He could hear the rustling of his clothes as the blond approached, but Sasuke wasn't intimidated in the least. 

Naruto _screamed_. Wiped the snot from his nose with the arm of his ridiculous orange sweater and gasped a ragged breath.

Sasuke settled his back against the edge of the counter, summoning the ounce of patience he kept in his 'dealing with Naruto' reserve.

It was running pretty low these days.

With crossed arms, he waited it all out like one waits out a storm.

.

.

"Look, we... We need to talk."

Sasuke turned his head; the black look he gave could have withered every living thing in Konoha.

They'd never gotten along in their youth.

Their rivalry in magic had begun in their academy days and recently progressed into something like war. Sasuke had been well aware of Naruto's immediate crush on Sakura the moment he introduced them.

It was, perhaps, the biggest mistake of his life.

_"She's the prettiest girl I've ever seen!"_

While they could agree on nothing else, however, there was Sakura: kind, intelligent and indeed, very pretty. Both valued her friendship.

Naruto had always been just a little more...enthusiastic about it.

He remembered how the wind mage stood aside when Sakura confessed her feelings to Sasuke three summers ago...and how he found himself returning them.

Letting her go must not have been easy at the time.

.

.

.

When Sakura began dating Naruto, Sasuke simply stood by.

.

.

Of course, it wasn't as though he had a choice.

He could feel the eyes of the mage council on him every day, watching his every interaction. He had no doubt that, should he step in a way that displeased them, they would make good on their threat to throw him in prison for life, this time with no consideration for his lineage.

Since word of the incident ending Naruto and Sakura's relationship reached Sasuke, he'd decidedly never felt so much contempt for the blonde in his life. Like a rubber band, he felt as though he'd snapped back to the quiet, bitter resentment they'd held toward one another as young teenagers.

Sasuke went about closing for the evening. He continued to work as if Naruto wasn't there.

That was, until Naruto started wrecking havoc on his mother's bakery.

The first shelf of pastries toppled over as the blond pushed it out of his way and hoisted himself over the counter, great, spherical gales whirling in each palm. Sasuke grabbed him by the neck mid-leap and _flung_ him into the little stainless steel fridge. The eyes he had inherited from his coven flared to life—a lethal, glowing red—as he spoke to Naruto in a low voice.

"You. S _eriously_ screwed up, Naruto. You're out of your mind if you think you can just show up here, thinking we'll put our heads together and find a way to reverse the shit storm brewing out there." He bashed Naruto's head harshly against the fridge and then released him.

"It's over. Now _get out_."

Naruto was crouching on the floor, holding a hand against his temple. "Sasuke," he whispered hoarsely, "it was the council."

Sasuke looked at the blond, an inkling of dread and curiosity shining in his eyes. "What?"

Naruto didn't answer. Instead, he moved toward the front of the shop and switched the blinds closed. He stood there for a while, as though he was waiting for something.

After some time, he sighed, ran a hand tiredly over his face and leaned against the sill.

"The mage council," he said at last. "They didn't want me involved with Sakura anymore."

* * *

The Uchiha quietly listened, holding his breath and waiting for Naruto to continue.

He did.

"At first, I wasn't sure they were even aware that we were together. We only started dating a few months ago."

Sasuke clicked his tongue at the wind mage. "That's because they weren't _watching_ you," he said. "You've been following Sakura around like a dumb dog since we were kids. Koharu and the rest are wicked, but they're not executioners. Spending more time with your best friend won't get you thrown in the slammer."

Naruto said nothing. He spread his fingers between the blinds and peered out with one eye.

Sasuke could feel his anger beginning to wane from the breaks in their conversation. He watched his rival as he played with the ring of bakery keys in his pocket.

"I warned you about this."

Naruto glanced at the fire mage; his eyes were a bleak navy in the slowly shrouding dusk.

"What we went through—what _Sakura_ had to go through. I thought it would have been enough of a deterrent for you. I would have stopped you myself if it weren't for—" Sasuke trailed off; sucked in a breath. He could feel himself shaking at the snips of awful memories this conversation was dredging up for him.

— _crying and screaming, the forest in chaos, she was_ stolen right out of his arms _, she was_ —

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "And Hyuuga Hinabi?

Naruto lifted his head; didn't speak. Sasuke was spurred on by his lack of response.

"You claim this was the council's doing..." the Uchiha wore a crude sneer. He waited for Naruto's expression to morph into anger—for him to _finally_ snap. He waited for slit pupils and orange eyes to glow in the darkness. "Don't tell me that was all part of the their plan. I know you had a thing for her sister at one time."

The empty look on Naruto's face went unchanged.

Sasuke grew pale with disbelief. "You can't be serious..."

"I was coming over to end my relationship with Sakura...just like I'd been ordered to. One of Danzou's subordinates was sent after me to ensure things were ended...effectively."

.

.

.

 _He enters the room through the window, quiet and careful. When he's got both feet on the carpeted floor, he notices the girl waiting for him on the_ _bed._

 _Not the owner of the room, but a girl--and a_ familiar _one._

 _It can't be_ — _it can't be, but she's there and Naruto is an_ idiot _._

_He stands in front of her, jaw slack with confusion and she stares up at him, a coy smile on her pretty lips. Rubs the ends of her silky raven hair between her dainty fingers._

_Then she pulls him down and before his brain can register what's happening, she's moaning wantonly beneath him like they're_ —like they're--

 _The door to Sakura's room swings open, and in that precise moment he realizes he's_ completely doomed.

_._

_._

"An illusion," Sasuke surmised. "It wasn't Hinabi, then."

* * *

 There wasn't much left for them to say to each other at this point.

As the minutes stretched forward and the evening fully settled over the city, the mages' sighs quietly overlapped.

"What do you want to do?" Sasuke asked, somewhat apprehensively. He was reluctant to continue this conversation in his mother's shop—especially considering the direction it seemed to be taking. He looked at the wind mage to see him scratching his chin, brows drawn in thought.

"Naruto," he prompted again, wondering if he'd even been heard.

Naruto paused. He stared at his Sasuke for a moment as if seriously considering something. The oddly concentrated look on his face made Sasuke both immensely curious and uncomfortable at the same time.

Sasuke blinked and then it all clicked together.

" _Don't even_ —"

"Sasuke, I know how you feel about this. And I know you really didn't mean it, but...You might have been right about what you said earlier. This is some seriously deep shit. What about your coven? Your parents? The council—"

"You can't exclude me from this," Sasuke said firmly; defiantly.

They were fourteen when they were made privy to their city's secret—the reason for Sakura's... _alienation_ from society. Itachi, the elders...and, admittedly, even his parents had all been all taking part in this twisted, ritualistic behavior to reach 'enlightenment' for sixteen years, and it made him absolutely ill. Since then, he and Naruto had plotted so carefully for so long to take her away from this wretched place to live a peaceful life.

They wanted to take her some place safe before she found out why her own people had been shunning her since she was small; somewhere she would be in the company of people who loved her, even if that number was as small as two.

This was not the way it was supposed to be.

"We have rogue mages... It's possible she might find out. Someone could tell her." Naruto admitted grimly, like he was reading Sasuke's thoughts.

"She's struggling with her memory. It's only a matter of time. If we can't get to her before then..." the dark-haired mage trailed off; such a thought felt nearly hopeless to him.

_Look how well his plans had gone last time._

Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder and offered him a small smile that didn't align with the doubt clouding in his blue eyes. "Hey, come on. I haven't been learning curse expulsion magic all this time for fun. Seriously. If— _when_ ," he amended, "we find Sakura, I'll remove the spell the city put on her. Now that Sakura's having trouble with her memory, it shouldn't be hard to find the Bane mark."

Sasuke rubbed his hand through his hair; huffed. There was no persuading Naruto once he made up his mind.

Fortunately for them both, Sasuke felt little inclination to stop him.

To stop this.

"I'm going to check on something, and then I'll meet you near the training grounds. I'm bringing Kurama."

"I'll have Ink get in touch with Kakashi...and Sai." Sasuke let Naruto and himself out of the bakery and then locked up behind them.

"Sai?" Naruto repeated, an eyebrow raised in doubt.

Sasuke slid the bakery keys into his back pocket--irritated, but resolute. "I don't like Root members sticking their dirty fingers in our business..." he admitted, "but, we'll need to prepare for the worst."

 

.

.

.

 

Ink is Sasuke's crow familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really feelin' the 'semi-free-form' with this chapter. I apologize for it not being very long.


	5. Exposure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A twist on Kaguya's origins. Sasuke's bird is annoying as hell.

_"Ino, that figurine... The one that's shaped like a bunny..."_

_Blue eyes narrowed at the little glass statue on a bookshelf in the living room, wrapped in a glossy and daintily painted white kimono._

_"Eh? You mean Kaguya?"_

_"Kaguya...?"_

_"Duh!" The little blonde shook her head at her friend's clueless response._

_After a moment, though, she crossed her arms and sighed resignedly. She looked like a teacher about to impart great wisdom upon her favorite student._ _"_ _Hmm... Well, it's weird since you're the High Sorceress' daughter, yet you live a sheltered life without any powers... I guess no one's ever told you about the world's most magically symbolic figure..._

_"You wanna know?"_

_A hesitant response, but..._

_Her pink-haired friend nodded. "Yes."_

_Ino Yamanaka smiled. After all, she never passed up the opportunity to tell an interesting story. "Alright, then."_

_._

_._

_._

_"The mage world tells its people the tale like this:_

 

_"Long ago, in the middle of an era of endless war, a strange and beautiful woman set foot into this world. They say she 'stepped out of a portal'—which is loosely interpreted today as Kaguya's arrival from another universe. A group of warriors brought her before the ruling emperor at the time and she learned where she was. Kaguya looked at this hopeless planet called Earth and saw only death and destruction, and became sad. Even as she plotted to steal their God tree's fruit--a sacred food the warriors guarded, said to contain a power like God's--they allowed her, a dangerous and mysterious alien, to stand in their presence. They were stupid and weak and they had no clue what she was capable of. Kaguya pitied them, and even felt an odd affection for them. She felt like she had to do something to save the lesser beings from themselves._

_"Kaguya erased everyone's memories of their meeting and settled among the people with the intention of guiding the sad world into peace. She grew close to the emperor. They had children and Kaguya thought she was happy... but war continued on. As it grew more intense, Kaguya realized that it would take more than what humanity already had in order to end the chaos. Defying the rule of the land, Kaguya finally ate the God tree's fruit. Obtaining God-like powers, she wove a spell to re-create the world._

_"Kaguya mourned for the previous people of earth. She mourned the emperor and her young children. In the end, she couldn't save them from themselves, and worried for the future of people on the newly created planet. 'Will they wage war, too?' 'Is this space cursed?' Shortly after, the alien woman began to realize the power she had taken into herself and used had made her extremely weak. She sealed herself away into a nearby body known as Earth's moon for eternal slumber. She placed whispers of her memories into the new planet's inhabitants—her children's—hearts with the hope that they would abide by her wish for peace. The people inherited Kaguya's magic, thus, the magic the world knows in the modern day..."_

_._

_._

_"...! Sheesh, Forehead! What's with the water works?"_

_"Ino... Is that story really true?"_

_The Yamanaka heiress groaned and reached for the tissue box on the coffee table. Sakura could be such a blubbering baby sometimes. "It's not a_ story _, it's ' religion'!" she corrected._

_Or, so said her mom and dad._

_"To think an alien felt so bad about a war on a planet that wasn't even hers..." Sakura continued, a mortified look on her face. "She must have sacrificed a lot._

_"...Hey, Ino. Do you think the way the world is now would be enough to satisfy Kaguya's wish?"_

_"How should I know?" Ino shrugged noncommittally. "There's some kind of super-powered fighting going on wherever you are in the magical world..._

_"That's just how it is, you know?"_

_Other than impulse and her desire to merely gossip, she honestly had no idea why she'd even mentioned the rabbit goddess to Sakura._

_It probably hadn't been the best decision she'd made this week..._

_"Hey, don't tell anyone I told you about Kaguya, okay? Or else I think we might get in trouble like that time with the paperweight..."_

_"Okay." Sakura agreed._

_"Gosh, you probably don't even know about Madara either, huh..."_

_"Madara?"_

_"Knew it."_

_._

_Satisfied, Ino held out a tissue to her friend. "Here, wipe your face."_

* * *

Sakura smiled at the rabbit-eared figurine nestled between her wallet and her makeup bag before zipping up her purse and stepping out of her car. Ino had secretly given her the Kaguya effigy on her eleventh birthday. She had been worried about receiving a gift Ino probably had no business giving to her, but...

_"No one's gonna miss it. Mom doesn't even dust that shelf anymore. Besides, you really like Kaguya, don't you?"_

She did, though Sakura couldn't really explain why.

Maybe it was because Kaguya's tale had been the only part of the magic world she had managed to tuck discreetly into her heart.

...Or, maybe she was just a sucker for tragic and romantic things. 

Either way, it had been her good luck charm for quite a while now. A lot had happened in the past month; it was probably a silly thought, but she hoped that by bringing Kaguya, dinner with her family might go over peacefully...

.

.

.

Sakura pressed her finger against the doorbell to her parents' house. While she waited on the porch for someone to answer the door, she tucked the bag from bakery under her arm and groomed herself one last time. She smoothed the ends of her short pink hair between her fingers and pushed the longer strands behind her ears. She picked at her skirt, fretting momentarily over the minuscule lint she might have picked up in the car on the way there. Not only would linty clothes be embarrassing, but... she knew her mother would really shake her head at that.

_'Sakura, did you roll out of the dryer before you came here?'_

.

.

 And then, the front door swung open and it was her father that greeted her.

"Sakura!"

_"Oof!"_

Sakura had zero seconds to decide how to get out of what she knew too well would be an inescapable hug and one of her father's weird episodes. She'd often heard fathers were strange about their daughters and authors were nutty in general, so maybe she was just really unlucky.

...Or was she really blessed?

Jiraiya grabbed her in a tight embrace and began to spout nonsense about how his little girl was "grounded forever for wearing that outfit in public."

"Dad, come on!" the pinkette grumbled crossly, her cheek smooshed against his shoulder. "I don't even live here anymore. That doesn't make any sense!"

Jiraiya straightened, giving her a smug smile.

"Fine, fine... Come on in!" He placed a hand on her head; laughed his roaring laugh that reminded her of camping trips, booze and her parents harmless spats. It made her smile despite herself as she stepped through the threshold and into the house.

* * *

 The aromas of food wafted from the kitchen as Jiraiya shut the door behind them. Sakura headed into the dining room, which was connected to the cooking area, and found her mother sitting at the table...

...Pouring herself a drink.

Tsunade looked up at Sakura and grinned when she noticed her standing there.

"Sakura! Ready for a drink with your mother?"

"I'm nineteen," the pinkette reminded her flatly, trying not to be affected by the giddy way Tsunade was looking at her. As she shrugged off her sweater and draped it over the couch in the living room, not far from the dining room, she heard her father laugh at whatever Tsunade's response had been.

"Yeah, right."

"Right, what?" Sakura stood in the archway, hands on her hips. Her mother rose a brow at her, the ghost of a grin still lingering on her face. She noticed the pink tint to Tsunade's cheeks and sighed. Since coming into her early teens, her mother had stopped looking as happy as she used to. The only time she ever saw her this way was when she was gambling or on her way to getting drunk.

Both of which were often 1+1.

While she never encouraged her mom's excessive drinking—or gambling— habits, Sakura would admit that she continued to endure it all, as long as it meant seeing these rare smiles...

"Dinner should be done in a few minutes," Jiraiya walked into the dining room from the kitchen. He sat down next to his wife and draped an arm around her shoulders. Tsunade's slightly peeved look grew into one of outright betrayal as he carefully slid the sake bottle and cup out of her hands—until she realized he was pouring her another drink.

Jiraiya looked at the pinkette, winked and then gestured for her to sit down with them.

Sakura's worries about an awkward dinner evaporated then. She'd never been more happy to be with her parents in her entire life.

.

.

.

It was the last evening she spent with them.

* * *

Kakashi had never been an advocate for locks.

He was one of those mages that find little point in keeping windows shut, or turning lights on, too.

What's the point when the world has magic, right?

Fire is a snap, and break-ins are as good as the kid next door eager to test-drive that new teleportation spell.

.

.

.

As it goes, Kakashi suddenly had a change of heart.

He approximated that exact change to be precisely the moment Sasuke's stupid, trash-eating bird flew in through his bedroom window and started pecking at his clothes.

God, it wasn't even nine o'clock. 

The copy mage rolled off his bed and laid on the carpet floor as Ink continued to squabble. He was uncharacteristically chatty tonight, meaning whatever message Sasuke had sent with him was urgent, but...

**"...Get up, I'll peck your eyes out! Who sleeps at this hour, are you serious? Dumbass! AHA! AHA! Urgent message from Sasuke-- _AHH!_ "**

_"Ink..."_

Kakashi yanked the bird out of mid-air and grasped it firmly. While Ink fluttered helplessly, the silver-haired mage unbound the little scroll attached to his leg and read.

.

.

Beneath the shadows of his small, studio apartment bedroom, his expression slowly grew severe.

"..."

Ink had gone quiet. Rather than screaming loud enough for the residents down the hall to hear, he was poking his beak persistently at the letter in Kakashi's hand. 

.

The copy mage abruptly released Sasuke's familiar. The crow fluttered out of his loosened grip and found wobbly purchase on one corner of his desk. He paid it no mind even as it tilted its head in relentless curiosity, watching him while he swiftly got dressed.

Kakashi gestured for the bird after adjusting the eye patch bearing Konoha's warding insignia over his limited eye. The dark scarf that he normally wore, regardless of the season, was wrapped up to his nose.

Ink hopped up on his shoulder and tucked himself inside the draping fabric. Having traveled with Kakashi enough times, he knew better to brace himself.

Giving the room one last, brief glance... "No rest for the wicked, right?"

He supposed he fit in that category, too.

Kakashi turned on his heel and left in a whirlwind of leaves. 

* * *

"You're sure the missive made it to his apartment."

"...I can still feel my bond with Ink, so everything should be fine."

"Interesting that your idiot bird hasn't smashed to its death against someone's car windshield, but that doesn't answer my question."

Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. Dealing with Sai was nearly as bad as having to put up with Naruto.

And that was saying a lot.

Fortunately, the _least_  insufferable pain in the ass happened to arrive shortly after that exchange, and just before Sasuke's rage could escalate.

Naruto arrived on training field eight by a sharp gust of wind. A small red fox sporting several tails and keen red eyes was curled comfortably around his shoulder. 

"Sai," the blond acknowledged the Root member first, then nodded at Sasuke. "How is it out here? Anything?"

Kurama, Naruto's familiar, shook out his long ears and then leaped down into the grass. 

"It's quiet," Sai replied calmly, gaze focused on the darkness beyond the surrounding trees. "Nothing's going on, as far as we can tell. Are you sure this isn't just a false alarm?"

"No," Naruto insisted. "There's a reason to be cautious every night. Sasuke said her memory was lagging this afternoon..."

"It is," Sasuke affirmed, leaning against the oak Sai was crouched in. His eyes were closed against the moonlight.

Naruto nodded. "If that's true, then--"

"We're in for a hell of a lot of trouble."

The three mages present turned their heads to witness Hatake Kakashi's arrival.

Smiling, the silver-haired mage raised his hand in greeting.

"Yo."

* * *

 "What do you mean by that?" Sai wanted to know, sliding down from his crook in the tree and landing silently on the ground. Kakashi cast a side-eyed glance at the pale ink mage as he walked past the young men he'd known since their pre-adolescence.

Sai _—_ a double agent art caster from the underbelly of Konoha's government _—_ was a fairly new addition to their rebel ragtag. His overtly clueless disposition was often as tragic as it was mind-blowing, but... Hadn't they all come together because they were all missing a little piece of themselves? 

"It's just as Naruto said," Kakashi responded, loosening his scarf a little. Ink came fluttering out and flew over to land on Sasuke's waiting wrist. "If Sakura's memory is faltering, it won't be long before both spells the council had cast on her are broken. It could happen as soon as tonight."

Currently, there were two of the same very powerful memory spells warring with themselves inside Haruno Sakura's head: 

One to forget _that_ night.

The other to warp all things involving her relationship with Sasuke.

Such a spell was only meant to be cast once _—_ for it would only work twice.

But, as it goes, there was the latter situation...

Kakashi looked at his fire-wielding pupil and sighed. Sasuke had never been one to sit around and wait for opportunity. Concerning Sakura, he might have gone as far as to say the Uchiha became a little reckless.

"They can't get out of this one." The curve to Sasuke's mouth was grim.

No one disagreed with him. 

From the moment Konoha had partaken in that terrible ritual seventeen years ago, they had not only sealed Sakura's fate.

They had also sealed their own.

* * *

 **おまけ** Omake

~~Extra~~

_The pearly moon shatters on the fifth night of Autumn._ _Beautiful, green power seeps into the body of a child._

_The High Sorceress of Konoha strains to maintain the spell._

_Thick, black lines slithering maliciously from one vulnerable body to another, clinging to exposed flesh..._

_The curse—_ but it is a curse _—Tsunade can't afford to think about the horrible thing she's done—finally leaves her for the host she's offered, and it wraps around the small, prone form, fanning out in horrible, intricate patterns—and then stops._

_Tsunade collapses on one knee, gasping for breath. The sharp hum of the ritual participants' magic abates, and the performance grounds are silent._

_And then the child_ screams _._

_She screams and screams, and Tsunade lifts her head and looks at her, fearing that her spell has failed. A part of her berates herself severely—the part that mourns the unfortunate child they've chosen as a host for Kaguya._

_Damn it all, she never wanted this. No one deserved this, but her people are desperate, the world is still fighting and they need something bigger than themselves to reach peace._

_A_ child _, though..._

_It's an awful shame—and her lament is real. His ritual instructions were so terribly specific: "It should be a girl. Orphaned, with no magical background."_

_The little girl,_ Sakura _—Tsunade will not forget her name—is trembling, clutching her head in her hands. A distinct diamond is seared into her forehead. Sickly, magenta energy comes off the sigil in oppressive waves._

_It is a warped version of Tsunade's magical insignia, similar only in shape, and the sight of it—the stark realization of what she's done makes her want to vomit._

_Sakura is still screaming. Her voice is hoarse, her face is red and it looks like she'll collapse into a choking fit at any moment._

_One of the less sympathetic mages drives a fist into the young girl's stomach before Tsunade can protest. Her wailing stops immediately, and she falls over boneless in the dirt, nose and cheeks still wet with tears and snot._

_Sakura doesn't move._

_Tsunade is crawling to her feet in a hurry when a large, warm hand rests itself on her shoulder. The High Sorceress' face twists in anger, but the rage in her chest is pinched out, and then she's cold. Jiraiya looks down at her; gives her a sympathetic look and simply shakes his head._

_Tsunade's eyes burn as she stares back at him; they're wet._

_The mages leave the ritual site. It is not their responsibility to deal with what comes next, but Tsunade's. Jiraiya lifts the unconscious girl in his arms. Her pale lashes are spiked with tears and there's a split in her lip from when she fell._

_Her long, pink hair glows magenta with the ritual sigil._

_Sakura._

_Tsunade thinks the name is quite fitting._

_._

_._

_._

_...And_ she hates this _._

_._

_._

_She is already in love with Sakura._

_._

She hates herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally intended to make Ink Itachi's familiar.
> 
> I wanted to mention early on that I've really been into the otome scene as of late. That said... I am planning one general end and several other endings for certain characters for this story.


	6. Goodbye, Paranoia.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura breaks.
> 
> Author Note: I spent a lot of time thinking about how I should write this chapter... The next segment of the plot begins here, so the transition is important. From here, I will be writing for the 'normal' ending of the story.

Dinner had gone well, much to Sakura's relief.

While Jiraiya put away the leftovers, Tsunade had moved on to a glass of barbera wine at the dinner table. Sakura watched her trace the rim of the crystal with a painted red nail; somehow, she thought her mother looked a little thinner in her favorite green haori.

It was around dessert time when things began to go downhill.

The pinkette sliced a generous piece of strawberry shortcake for each of them and then brought their plates to the table. While Sakura enjoyed her share with a glass of milk, Jiraiya complimented her choice of dessert.

"Hmm..." The sage turned the handle of his fork between his fingers, a deep and thoughtful look on his face. "You know, it tastes kind of familiar. Is this from Uchiha Mikoto's bakery?"

"Yeah, I stopped there on the way over," Sakura smiled at her father. "Mikoto wasn't there, but Sasuke was."

Tsunade's hand stilled as she lifted her wine glass. 

"Mikoto's desserts are nice, but you didn't have to go out of your way," she said quietly, golden eyes staring contemplatively into the thick, astringent liquid. "There's a new shop closer to the house, now."

.

.

.

Sakura frowned. 

Was there something wrong with the cake? Or, maybe the Uchihas had been particularly stubborn, as they apparently were, at the coven meetings this week?

Already quite high on her own suspicion after her talk with Sasuke that evening, Sakura stared at her mother. "That... that's true. I didn't think of that..." she admitted, recalling the little cafe-bakery that had just opened up. "I guess I'm a little reluctant to go anywhere else. I've been spoiled by Sasuke's mother's baking since we were little. Even after we..."

.

.

_**"I could take you away from here."** _

_**"I'd like that."**_

_**"...Let's just leave!"** _

.

_Huh?_

"Sasuke...?"

" _Sakura!_ Please, don't--!"

_Crash!_

Tsunade's glass tumbled off the table and shattered. Glass and flecks of wine alike sprayed across the tile.

Jiraiya stood immediately to go over and help her clean up the spill.

Meanwhile, Sakura stared off into space, mumbling slowly to herself.

"Since... That's weird... Just now—"

"Sakura, it's dangerous. Just stay where you are." Jiraiya insisted. "I'll have this cleaned up in a minute..."

While he began to blot out the red alcohol on the white tablecloth, he exchanged concerned looks with Tsunade.

.

Their daughter just stared blankly ahead.

* * *

 "Sakura." Tsunade's voice came firm. It drew Sakura out of her trance. She turned to the High Sorceress with a dazedly expectant look.

Evidently, Sakura herself hadn't been aware of... whatever had just occurred. 

Her parents wore slightly relieved expressions.

"...Sorry, I must be a little buzzed." Sakura apologized, a sheepish smile on her face.

But she wasn't much of a drinker and she barely had a sip of her mother's wine tonight.

.

.

.

"What were we talking about? The Uchiha bakery, right?"

Tsunade placed a hand against her forehead and closed her eyes as though she were suddenly very tired. The bottle of wine sat in the middle the table, still more than half full.

Sakura looked at her mother and her suspicion returned.

.

.

...Something was wrong.

"You don't want to talk about the Uchihas..." she began. "I know you don't like Sasuke. Neither do I, but _why_ —"

Something _clicked_.

"...I mean, we were just dumb teenagers. Was our relationship _really_  so bad, that even you--"

"I am your _mother_. Of course I was upset!" Tsunade cut her daughter off, slamming her fist down on the dining table. A sharp _crack_ echoed in the room as wide splinters webbed across the wood.

A little more quietly, she added, "Yes, it's true... I hate the way that boy took advantage of you." 

She didn't realize the mistake she made until Sakura's fork dropped into her plate.

Slowly, the pinkette rose from her chair. She placed the napkin in her lap beside her empty cup. "Sasuke never took advantage of me... We argued a lot. I...I think?" Her parents watched her with growing looks of concern.

Of horror.

Sakura clutched her head, suddenly feeling dizzy. "What...wait."

Her chest was so hot.

And suddenly, she felt angry.

She exploded.

"I'm so tired of this! _Clearly_ , you know something that I don't! Here we are, having dinner together for the first time in _months._ Just _sitting_ here, acting like everything is fine! Just like always. Doubt that's ever going to change!" Sakura was heaving. It felt like her skin was on fire. Her parents noticed her pink-tinged complexion. Tsunade, who stood up with Sakura, quickly moved toward her daughter, hands glowing green.

Sakura thought she looked like a stranger.

"Sakura, calm down—"

"No!" the pinkette screamed, slapping her mother's hands away. Tsunade looked as if she'd been struck across the face instead.

The High Sorceress made a grab for Sakura's head with her hands enveloped in healing magic, intending to make the girl unconscious. She had to calm Sakura down, or it would be too late...

Sakura retaliated.

She lifted her hand; her entire arm crawling with grotesque, black markings. Pale, green energy stolen from Tsunade escaped into Sakura's palm.

Tsunade took a step back; Sakura advanced.

Jiraiya moved to stand next to his wife, earning Sakura's intense glare. While the rest of her face remained contorted in anger, her eyes were no more than dull jades set upon him, likely contemplating the measure of the threat he posed. Her body glowed with the teal of Tsunade's magic. Wisps at first flickered around her like a vicious, evolving fire.

...And then, blackened into a nightmarish purple.

"There's nothing we can do... Not at this point." Tsunade told him as she blocked a lash of that dark magic from Sakura with a green-lit hand. Then she turned to him. A familiar pattern was unraveling itself across her forehead. "Go request backup. We need to exhaust her. I'll stay here until the sharingan can—"

_"Look out!"_

Jiraiya hooked an arm around Tsunade's waist and dove for the kitchen. When they uncovered their eyes, they found themselves surrounded by the fiery splinters of what remained. 

Tsunade sat up and kicked the dining table into the broken entry way, temporarily halting Sakura's approach. Black flames curled around the threshold, eating away the paint.

She grit her teeth and stared ahead.

Jiraiya watched a lone tear slide down her cheek as she pleaded. "Jiraiya, please."

_Hurry._

.

He didn't need to hear anymore than that.

The sage left quickly in a shiver of wind and leaves.

* * *

 A fleet of black ops mages flew past Shikamaru in billowing black robes and took to the roofs, stirring up a whisper of smog in the air.

 _What do these guys even do on their days off?_  he wondered bemusedly, brows drawing together. He supposed those assassin types probably never stopped to admire the sunset once in their entire lives.

.

.

.

The view tonight was incredible, and he'd been enjoying such a nice smoke.

The shadow caster sighed heavily, dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his shoe. His tawny eyes set with an intolerance for it all. Tiny silver earrings glared off the light of dusk.

What was it Kakashi had started saying recently?

"No rest for the wicked."

In his case, it was probably: 'More work for the lazy.'

.

.

Shikamaru blew out a breath, closed his eyes and leaned against the frame of the entrance to the little bar he was currently visiting with a few friends.

He coaxed a vision of bright green eyes and bouncy pink hair from his memories.

.

_"Shikamaru, doesn't staring at the same thing every day get kind of boring?"_

_"No."_

_No? Hmm... Why is that?"_

_"Because it's not the same thing every day."_

.

.

.

_"Hey, Shikamaru. Doesn't that one kind of look like a marshmallow?"_

_"A pink marshmallow? Haha... Yeah, maybe."_

_"A pink... Somehow, I feel like you're making fun of me."_

_A smirk._ _"Now, why would I make fun of my only female cloud-watching companion?"_

_._

_._

Shikamaru watched the remaining embers of tobacco sizzle out on the asphalt detachedly.

If Naruto hadn't asked, would he be responding on his own right now?

.

The rosy clouds suddenly seemed to mock him as he melted into the shadows. 

* * *

Sakura came to her senses in a one-sided fight.

Or so she thought.

One moment, she and her mother had been arguing over dinner, and in the next, she woke up hurting all over.

How did things end up like this...? 

The pinkette shuddered where she stood, unsettled by a sensation of knowing nothing.

She really couldn't remember.

Tsunade's fist came flying toward her. Sakura only had her clumsiness and her current state of shock to thank as she tripped in her escape, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have surely punched a hole through her stomach.

"Mom!" she cried in disbelief, quickly crawling to her feet. Her forearms and wrists stung with scrapes and cuts much like the rest of her body and were marred by dark, bruise-like markings. As her eyes darted wildly around her, she realized that the demolished walls, collapsing ceiling and the piles of burnt debris around them had once been her family's home. Devastated tears sprang to her eyes, and she stayed rooted, shaking as Tsunade stalked toward her, fists glowing. " No, no, no... Wh-what's happening? What are you doing?

_"What happened?!"_

Tsunade didn't answer as she aimed to strike again. Sakura's heart raced in fear as the woman's deceptively slender hand reached toward her chest.

There was no wonder where the sorceress meant for her next blow to land.

Tsunade was close enough for Sakura to see the swelling and the cuts on her knuckles when a crackling fist of lightning burst through her stomach. Her breath came out in a horrified rush as she looked up to see the stunned look on her mother's face. Her brain scrambled to register the means for her mouth to scream. 

As the woman fell into a boneless heap in her arms, the fist was withdrawn and the attacker was revealed to her. Sakura looked up at him, livid. Words failed her as she recognized him with a clarity only adrenaline could bring, clicking uselessly in her throat. 

"S-Sas..."

Sasuke calmly flicked the gore off his fingers, the sharp chittering of sparks and their eerie glow going dim. His kohl eyes remained fixed on her the entire time. 

"Sakura?"

Sakura jolted as he reached toward her. Tsunade's blood was pouring through her hands. She could feel it coating her legs, pooling beneath her knees...

The pinkette turned her head, braced her hands against the floor and became violently ill. 

Sasuke knelt beside her and rubbed her recoiling back until she stopped retching. When she could finally stop shaking, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and turned her head over her shoulder to look at him. 

Was the kind Sasuke she had recalled earlier really real? 

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes when she looked into his face and saw no remorse. 

"Don't touch me."

Jerking away from him, she moved Tsunade's unconscious body to lay beside her. Though the bleeding had not stopped, she noted the string of foreign characters glowing across her forehead and knew that her rejuvenation spell was active. Tsunade would live.

But the reality that Sakura knew was far from fine. A wall that had barricaded an ugly truth had begun to crumble.

What more was there that she had forgotten, and how?

Curling into herself, Sakura wrapped an arm around her legs. She placed a hand on her mother's paling face and tried to swallow the hard sob in her throat.

She wanted to bawl like a child. 

Cool fingers wrapped around her upper arm and tugged gently, but insistently. "Come on," said Sasuke. The strange sympathy in his voice was enough to persuade her to her feet, but that was all. Standing there, she felt much too light for her own weight.

For the first time since coming to, she realized how badly her head hurt her. The pinkette kneaded her fingers into her forehead, expecting a bump or a scratch, but felt nothing unusual on the surface. 

Sasuke stilled beside her as they heard the sound of someone—or something—forcing their way through the broken house. His eyes were red with his coven-inherited ability, and searching for the source.

He relaxed when he seemed to recognize it.

When Naruto appeared in the ruined front doorway, Sakura nearly cried with relief.

"What took you so long?" Sasuke growled, standing. Naruto was crossing into the living room and heading toward her, pretenses abandoned.

He knelt in front of Sakura and wrapped his arms around her. The pinkette let loose with her sobs and cried into his shirt while he rocked her gently.

"Shhh, it's okay, baby," he told her quietly, stroking her hair. His eyes met with Sasuke's, and then Tsunade, still and lying on the floor. 

Another glance at the Uchiha told them they were both thinking the exact same thing: they needed to get Sakura away from Konoha—and quickly.

Standing, Naruto gestured for Sakura to wait there while he and Sasuke stepped into the hallway. They spoke in low voices while keeping an eye on the distressed girl in the other room. 

"You have to take her," Sasuke insisted, crossing his arms while looking at Sakura. "This is my doing. They're going to want me for attempted murder. Dead or alive."

"All the more reason for you to be the one," Naruto countered after shaking his head. "Tsunade will survive this," he continued, sweeping a hand through his hair. "But she's gonna be pissed when she wakes up.

"All of them are. You can't afford to stay here, Sasuke."

The Uchiha let his gaze stray away from the living room long enough to glare at the blond, darkness overtaking red. "It's suicide. For _both_ of us," his voice rose an octave with frustration. " _Why_ do I need to keep reminding you that—"

Both men lifted their heads at a thump on the broken roof.

Sasuke cursed and reached for the long sword at his hip.

"The others are stationed at the points we discussed." A spherical gale burst to life in Naruto's palm and the two of them emerged from the entrance. "Get to Sai. One of his creations will fly you out as far as it can but stay in the trees."

Naruto took Sakura by the hand and began leading her out of the room just as several figures dropped in from the roof.

"Go!" he told them both, turning to meet the enchanted short sword of a cloaked figure. The sheer power of his wind spell deflected the attack, one hand raised against the blade. 

Sasuke clutched the back of his hair, watching the scene in rekindled panic; deliberating. 

Sakura stood away from him, familiar terror in her eyes as she watched Naruto and his clone spell wrestle off one mage after another.

.

.

.

Then, he was really doing this.

He could not— _would_ not—mess this up.

.

.

"We're going," he told Sakura.

The pinkette gawked at him, dropping her arms. "What?!"

"You heard me."

Hauling her further into the dilapidated hallway, Sasuke quickly silenced any further protests with a hand over her mouth. The corner of his lips tilted upward as she pinned him right back with a scathing look.

"Close your eyes," he whispered, tucking her close to his body.

For all that he was doing, she surprised him by obeying.

.

In a brilliant whirl of fire, they vacated the house.


End file.
